The power of writing and how to get started

How (and why) I create content

I enjoy creating content

I don't do it to grow followers

I do it to share knowledge

The value I find from writing

While many people encourage daily posting on LinkedIn to boost your followers, the type of writing I have found particularly valuable is longer-form articles.

I believe writing is a great unlock for people’s careers and often advise folks who report to me or I mentor to start writing because it can:

• Create and catalyze dialogs with others who share your passion for a topic
• Think through ideas around a topic in a more structured way
• You share knowledge with others (in a scalable way)
• Establish you as a someone knowledgeable on the topic
• Build your reputation/personal brand

My process

People often struggle to create content.  Sitting down to create an article feels intimidating and often you don’t know where to start, so they just don’t do it.

I have discovered that breaking it up into stages works well.  I use the following process

1. Inspiration: Have an idea, add it to my board with a quick sentence

• Often when I am on a call, I will write down ideas to come back to later
• Podcasting is a great way to push yourself to articulate ideas in your head.  When your podcast is published listen to it and you’ll find a few great ideas
• LinkedIn is a great source of ideas.  Read others’ posts and share a comment.  That comment could be an article

2. Ideation:  Create a google doc and add a few more ideas in adhoc way

3. Outline:   When the doc has enough content, set aside 30 mins to outline.  No pressure to actually write coherently, just structure my ideas

4. Draft:  Set aside another 30 mins to write a rough draft

5. Post (Optional):  Share a short version of your article in a LinkedIn post.  The comments can provide new insights and also generate people for the next step

6. Refine with Input:  Engage a few people knowledgeable on this topic for feedback.  This provides a few benefits:

• Improve your article with input from experts
• Source great terrific quotes (makes articles more engaging)
• Reinforce your relationship with these people

7. Publish:  Publish the article (don’t forget to tag the people from the step above;). I don't have a strong view on where to publish (medium, linkedin....). I don't write frequently enough or on a single topic to do substack. Personally I like publishing long-term articles on LinkedIn

💡Tip:  I have found that AI is a powerful tool when you are drafting.  If you are having trouble wording something, try asking Chat GPT for suggestions.  

💡Tip:  Increasingly I've started to write "ahead of where I know". - writing helps me engage experts and learn more rapidly. Example... a VC asked me if I had a market map for AI. I said "no but let me build one (see it here)". Now I'm being invited to speak at AI summits.

Ways to leverage your writing

I write articles on topics I speak about frequently and therefore regularly share these links with people including:

• Companies I advise:  Give a clear playbook they can build on
• Peers:  To continue to pressure test and refine my thinking
• People I manage/mentor:  Make advice on the soft-skills actionable
• Podcasts:  Frame the topics we can talk about
• People who ask for advice: I often guide people to my writing to help them leverage me more effectively. Here is an article I wrote on "how to ask for advice"

Other inspiring pieces on writing

• Article by Nir Eyal on tactics to make the time to write (time boxing, the importances of getting comfortable with discomfort)
• Podcast by Sam Hinkie around the power of writing to help others understand your thought process and engage with you
• Sarah Guo on how writing led to an amazing new dialog
• Kyle Poyar's playbook for writing. If you don't subscribe to his content, do!